Hillside coach Steve Dunning remembered as 'a role model and a leader'; memorial set for Sept. 20

KALAMAZOO, MI -- Steve Dunning loved basketball and he loved kids, and he combined those passions into a career that impacted hundreds of young people, friends and family say.

“People didn’t come any finer that Steve Dunning,” said Rick Beauregard, Dunning's middle school football coach 35 years ago and later a colleague in Kalamazoo Public Schools.

Steve Dunning

“He
always had kids’ best interest" at heart, Beauregard said. "Kids' best interest was his
best interest. He always strived to make his student athletes the best
they could be and gave them more as a person – taught them more about
respect for other people and for the sport than anything else. He was
just a fantastic, fantastic young man.”

Dunning, a longtime coach for Kalamazoo's Hillside Middle School, collapsed and died Sunday evening while playing basketball at Oakland Drive Park in Portage. He was 47.

The cause of death appears to be heart attack, but the family is still awaiting autopsy results, said Charles Parker, one of Dunnings' 11 siblings.

"We're all in shock," Parker said about Dunning's death. "Of the 12 of us, he was the healthiest."

Steve and his twin brother, Dale, were the babies of the family, Parker said.

"He was my baby brother," Parker said, but Dunning grew up to become "a role model and a leader."

Steven Earl Dunning was born April 28, 1966, in Kalamazoo to Vernell Parker and Izeir McCallister, who are both deceased.

He first caught public attention as part of a 1983-84 Kalamazoo Central High School basketball team ranked among the top 10 in the state. Dunning was a muscular 6-foot-4 guard who scored 28 points in a regional tournament game against Ann Arbor Huron.

After graduating from K-Central in 1984, Dunning went to Hillsdale College, where he studied liberal arts and played basketball.

Following college, he was hired as a paraprofessional and coach at Hillside Middle School. Former Hillside principal Dorothy Young called him an "anchor" at the school, where he coached football and occasionally track and also worked with students who needed extra academic support.

But Dunning also took his talents outside the school, and became an icon in the Kalamazoo sports community -- as a player on adult basketball leagues; as a coordinator of leagues operated by the Douglass Community Association; as a referee so respected that last spring, he was part of the crew for the Class A boys' state championship basketball game.

Dunning also coached in the Amateur Athletic Union.

Parker, a well-known figure in the sports community himself, said he was in awe of his younger brother's talents in working with kids.

"I'd pick his brain" about coaching, Parker said. "His knowledge of basketball was deep and endless," and Dunning also knew how to motivate young kids.

"He was very demanding, but if he saw someone struggling, he would try to think of ideas" to help them, Parker said. "He was very cheerful, very joyful."

Steve Dunning, right, in a 2006 photo taken during an even at the Douglass Community Association.

Parker and others pointed out that some of the best athletes to come out of Kalamazoo -- including Greg Jennings Little John Flowers, who both played professional football -- had Dunning as a coach.

He also was the middle school coach for most of the K-Central players who went to the state basketball championship game for three years in a row between 2009 and 2011.

"He built kids, but he didn't take credit," Parker said. "His coaching spoke for itself."

Beauregard, an assistant principal
at Loy Norrix High School until his retirement in 2006 and a longtime coach, agreed that Dunning has a special touch with children.

“I’m a better person today because I had the opportunity to work with
young people like Steve Dunning,” Beauregard said.

O'Neal Ollie, a longtime employee at the Douglass Community Association, said his life was intertwined for
many years with Dunning -- coaching youngsters, playing on adult
basketball league teams, working as game officials, and working together to
oversee basketball leagues at the Douglass.

"He had countless undefeated teams at
Hillside Middle, including last year's team," Ollie said of Dunning.

He said it was not unusual for Dunning
to have 20 kids on his teams -- instead of the standard 12 or 15 -- in order to keep
more youngsters involved in a school activity. He was also level-headed and
usually a voice of reason in heated situations, Ollie said.

"Steve just did so much for the
population that needed it the most," Ollie said, adding that Dunning worked with
some of the most difficult kids. "Steve was heroic to me. ... He's a guy that did
a lot above and beyond. A lot of it was through
his sports and coaching."

Dunning called Ollie about just before 6 p.m. Sunday evening, inviting Ollie to play in a pickup basketball game.

"He played all the time," Ollie said. "I hadn't played in a year."

Ollie couldn't go and the two agreed to talk later.

Less than 90 minutes later, Ollie got a another call, this time saying Dunning had collapsed and died.

Parker said that when he got the call on Sunday evening, he couldn't believe it. "I was like, 'don't be fooling me,' " he said.

"But he died doing what he loved," Parker said.

Dunning is survived by two children, TaKarra LaRen Dunning and Jamar
De’Anthony Clark, and two grandchildren, Amariah
Da’jhamere Snell and Ka’Ree Michael Allen Abbott, all of Kalamazoo.

Visitation will be from 6 to 8 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 19, at Mount Zion Baptist Church, 120 Roberson St. The memorial service will be noon Friday, Sept. 20, at Mount Zion, which a family hour starting at 11 a.m.